Amendment to child marriage act sought

ISLAMABAD: Child marriages in Pakistan are a common phenomenon with almost 58 per cent prevalence in rural areas and 27 per cent in the urban areas.

However, the number of child marriages taking place in the country remains unknown, says a press release issued by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (Sparc) here on Wednesday.

Commenting on the occasion of a nationwide campaign launched by Sparc titled ‘Child marriage: unjust and unlawful’, Executive Director Qindeel Shujaat said a private bill had been submitted to the parliament in this regard but “as usual the movement on the bill is extremely slow”.

Sparc’s media and creative unit, Fazila Gulrez, said: “Sparc demands that the amendment should be expedited; it calls for raising the age of the girl to 18 (A child, according to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, is a person under the age of 18), the same as that of a boy, a substantive increase in the penalty to that of at least Rs100,000 and immediate enforcement of the same.”
Source: Dawn
Date:12/10/2009